A blog about food, focusing on vegan cooking for one person (or two small eaters).

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Thursday, April 2, 2015

Quinoa-Crusted Pizza with Squash and Tahini for One

I don’t know about you, but when the price of asparagus
drops, I go a little nuts with it. Today’s offering combines the filling
crunchiness of quinoa with the unctuous smoothness of a tahini drizzle and a
tangy pesto sauce. You won’t miss the gluten or the cheese. Both the pesto and
the tahini drizzle make extra, which will make you happy at another meal, too.

For
the Crust:

½
cup quinoa, thoroughly washed and soaked in water for 8 hours, and drained

A
pinch of salt

¼
- 1/3 cup water

For
the Sauce:

I
bunch fresh basil

½
bunch fresh cilantro or parsley

2
cloves of garlic, peeled and baked in the oven for 20 minutes (more garlic is
good too)

1
½ TBLSP olive oil

Zest
of ½ lemon

Juice
of ½ lemon

2
TBLSP rice vinegar (or other white/clear vinegar)

2
TBLSP sunflower seeds (raw, unsalted, and hulled) or other seed or nut

Salt
to taste

For
the Drizzle:

4
teaspoons tahini

1
TBLSP nutritional yeast

Several
shakes of onion powder

Several
shakes of garlic powder

1
TBLSP freshly grated horseradish (optional—you could use hot sauce, if you
wanted)

2
½ teaspoons white wine vinegar (or rice vinegar)

A
pinch of fine sea salt

4
TBLSP water (more, If needed to make it thin enough to drizzle)

For
Toppings:

1/3
cup cooked chickpeas or other bean, rinsed and drained well

6
stalks asparagus, steamed and chopped bite-sized

2
green onions, diced

6
black olives, sliced or diced

Salt
and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a
cookie sheet, pie tin, or baking dish with parchment paper.

Make
the Crust:

Put the soaked quinoa, salt, and ¼ cup
of water into a food processor. Whirl away. The result should be about the
consistency of pancake batter. If it’s too thick, add more water. If it’s too
thin, let it drip from a strainer for a few minutes.

Spread the mixture evenly on the cookie
sheet (I like to make a rectangle, but you could make a more traditional
circle) and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the crust is firm.

Make
the Sauce:

Meanwhile, place all the ingredients for
the sauce (basil, cilantro, etc.) in a food processor or blender and whirl
until it’s not chunky. It doesn’t have to be super smooth, unless you like it
that way.

Make
the Drizzle:

Put the tahini, yeast, onion and garlic
powders, grated horseradish, vinegar, salt, and water into a small bowl and
whisk until it’s smooth. Or you can use a food processor or blender. It’s your
decision.

Assemble
the Pizza:

When the crust is out of the oven,
spread a thick layer of the pesto sauce over the top of it and fling chickpeas
all over it.

Put the crust back into the oven for 3-5
more minutes, until everything is warmed through.

Pull the warmed pizza out of the oven
and top with asparagus, green onions, and olives. Salt and pepper to taste, and
drizzle with the tahini sauce.

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About Me

I've been a vegetarian in some form or other since I was a teenager. I never liked meat (especially red meat), and I won the battle with my mother when I was 17. Now, back then, you have to realize, it was hard to get tofu or other non-animal proteins in a regular grocery store, so although my general health improved (I stopped getting colds and flus, and I gained enough weight to stop looking like a holocaust survivor), I started having digestive problems.

Western doctors knew even less about nutrition than they know now, Mine suggested that I eat chicken or fish about twice a month to keep my body's own enzymes and acids to a decent level, and then stress wouldn't send me into such a miserable zoo of pain. So I did it. It worked pretty well for quite a while. But in 2006, I went vegan, now that it's easy enough to get non-animal proteins.

Now I'm starting a third blog, on vegan cooking for one (or two). It started with coming home from rehearsal and wanting just one cookie. But then it got fun--what else could I make that didn't involve leftovers, or, in the case of baked goods, guilt for eating the whole batch. And I thought I'd share this collection of recipes that I've accumulated.